The Little Puppet sat on the edge of the coffee table, staring blankly with her large scarlet eyes at Yu Sheng's operation. After a while, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow! Why is this stretching?"Then she started to shake her head and sway her body, her usually useless solid skull turning swiftly only at this moment, "Why do I feel like after this thing stabbed you, it actually became so close to you? The atmosphere is kind of ambiguous... what was that big Shipper's name again? Oh right, Ren Wenwen..."
Yu Sheng was concentrating on scientific research when he heard the Little Puppet chattering incessantly, he couldn't help but flick her to the ground with a finger: "Hold on a moment, have you been watching too much random stuff lately?!"
Erin rolled over immediately, hugged Yu Sheng's hand and tried to bite it, but just as her mouth opened halfway, a sound of breaking through the air came from beside her, and the scarlet spear floating on the coffee table surprisingly split into a tentacle-like thing, swinging horizontally towards the Little Puppet.
Unfortunately, although the thing appeared mysteriously, it was far from accurate. With a slight lowering of her head, the scarlet tentacle missed Erin, and then turned into a phantom and dissipated into the air.
"Whoa!" The Little Puppet was startled, scrambling onto the sofa and quickly darting behind Yu Sheng, poking her head out to look, "What the heck is this?!"
Then she turned her head to Yu Sheng: "Was that tentacle you conjured up just now? Yu Sheng, I'm telling you, the stuff you're reading is way more sinister than mine."
"Stop joking, I don't even know where it came from." Yu Sheng was also taken aback, hurriedly waved his hand then pointed a finger at the scarlet spear, which obediently settled on the coffee table again—it returned to its quiet state, as if nothing had happened just now.
"Not moving again?" Erin hesitantly peeked at it for a long time, only after confirming it wouldn't suddenly throw something at her did she cautiously emerge from behind Yu Sheng, then climbed onto the coffee table to poke the spear shaft, swiftly jumping back again, "Eh, why do I feel like this thing could spring up and start talking at any moment..."
Yu Sheng looked at the small creature, both cowardly and reckless, with a helpless expression, although he said nothing, he focused most of his attention on the perceptual connection with the scarlet spear.
Indeed, he hadn't foreseen the spear's sudden change just now nor participated in its control, but after that instantaneous change, it seemed... their established connection indeed contained something more.
After a brief hesitation, he cautiously asked, "Are you trying to protect me?"
The spear naturally had no response; only Erin turned her head at the edge of the coffee table, gazing at Yu Sheng as if she were caring for an idiot.
Yu Sheng: "..."
To be honest, it would be one thing if someone else looked at him like that, but when this blockhead of a Little Puppet does that, Yu Sheng truly can't accept it. He awkwardly coughed twice while picking up the spear, "I'm just testing, isn't that how the stories go? Divine Artifacts can communicate with people and whatnot, even if this thing isn't a Divine Artifact, it's at least a living entity..."
He had just awkwardly explained halfway when he heard footsteps from beside him, and upon looking up, saw the fox girl sauntering over with a chicken leg in hand.
Hu Li sat on the sofa, looked at the scarlet spear resting on Yu Sheng's legs, her two fluffy ears twitching: "Does it require a blood transfer for recognition? I've heard higher-level Magic Treasures come with biological information verification..."
Yu Sheng wanted to mock the jump from "blood transfer for recognition" to "biological information verification" being a bit too far, but there was another more worthy point for mockery: "Blood transfer for recognition?! This thing stabbed straight into my major artery, I had massive bleeding!"
"But that wasn't a truly complete 'Blood Transfer'," Hu Li blinked, "Isn't the Blood Transferring Ceremony supposed to require your 'authentication' and 'permission'? I recall it needs some sort of operation..."
Hu Li's voice faded, Erin joined in clapping: "Ah, right, back then you were stabbed to a pulp, and there wasn't even a corpse left, could that have caused the process to be incomplete?"
Yu Sheng listened to the Little Puppet's blabbering mouth, really wanting to argue he wasn't stabbed to death in one go but lingered on for quite a while, yet as the words came to his lips, it felt embarrassing to say, so he could only act seriously and cough twice: "Cough cough, I think Hu Li has a point..."
Then he stabilized himself, raised a hand: "Luna..."
Luna, who was sweeping the kitchen, instantly shadow teleported over, made a floral cut on Yu Sheng's arm, and rushed back to continue sweeping.
Yu Sheng glanced at his arm, finding a beautiful cut besides which a delicate heart was carved lovingly, not too painful and a bit itchy.
It could be said the skill was just right, perfectly tailored to his physique. Considering Yu Sheng's now superhuman recovery ability, even the heart had a gradual shifting effect over time...
Erin peeked, her little face scrunched: "Yu Sheng, I'm telling you, we should pay attention to C-type buckle's mental state, ordinary obsessive craftsmanship wouldn't be this good..."
Yu Sheng considered for a moment, finding everyone's mental state at home quite healthy—at least compared to the big nephew at the gate outside who daily hangs out on the curb with ancestors sunbathing.
Thinking this, he already pressed his hand onto the scarlet spear, once more attempting to infuse his blood into it—following the Blood Transferring Ceremony's standards.
Threads of blood seeped from his arm wound, drawn imperceptibly into his fingers, then injected into the spear's shaft.
Yu Sheng squinted slightly—
...
Deep within the Council Tower, in a special room, Red awakened from light sleep, got out of bed.
This was a bedroom, yet its decor greatly differed from ordinary dwellings—a dark, elegant furniture arrangement was seen everywhere, with a classical floor of dark red patterns and wall-adorned paintings and tapestries evoking those classical court styles in oil paintings. Though the room's tone appeared somewhat gloomy, details exuded elegance and sophistication.
The inexplicable irritation in her heart and the noise in her mind swirled endlessly. The thin and slender vampire girl closed her eyes, furrowing her brows slightly, waiting for the noise swirling in her mind to restore calm.
She had long been accustomed to this feeling, and in a sense, these "shadows of memory" from ancient times have long been a part of her mind—those fragmented memories from the Old World, those blurry images that even she could no longer see clearly, those faces that once smiled at her, cared for her, or resented her, all disappearing into the abyss of forgetfulness. And after the precise memories faded, the voids they left in her mind turned into howling sources that echoed unceasingly.
Old World Nightmare Syndrome—for most people in this world, it's a disease that can be easily cured, but for others, it never left.
However, this time things seemed a bit different. Just when Red thought it would take much longer for her mind to regain peace, the noise quickly dissipated—lasting shorter than every previous time and much milder.
Red frowned slightly and, at the moment the "mental noise" completely dissipated, she seemed to see a great city standing alone in the wilderness in a trance, and hear a melodious bell resounding over the city. Although the illusion vanished in an instant, the bell continued to wander in her mind for a long time, as if constantly soothing the emptiness and panic generated by the holes in her memory.
...Did I see it wrong? Somehow, when I saw the city gates, it seemed a bit asymmetrical...
Must have seen it wrong.
Red shook her head, vaguely aware that this might be related to the "Blood Transferring Ceremony" she had just undergone. Anyway, the ceremony seemed to have a positive effect.
Some faint sounds suddenly came from nearby, interrupting the actions of the vampire girl.
She suddenly raised her head and looked towards the direction the sound came from.
In the corner of the bedroom sat a dressing table, with an oval mirror fixed atop it.
The sound was coming from the mirror.
A slight cracking noise, accompanied by the slow infiltration of some viscous liquid.
Red frowned, her figure briefly blurred, then instantly appeared in front of the dressing table.
She saw the mirror on the dressing table undulating, the glass surface continuously shattering into countless tiny fragments before restoring itself, as if some force was surging within the mirror, trying to break free. And from the countless cracks opening on the mirror surface, crimson blood continuously seeped out.
Red's brow furrowed instantly, subconsciously recalling a movie she had once seen—a gourmet film—
It's about the protagonist trapped in a big house, and then the bathroom, washbasin, dressing mirror, and everything else in the house started constantly bleeding... She couldn't remember the plot specifically, but recalling it now still made her feel quite hungry.
Incidentally, she also remembered that at the time, Ah Qing, who was just a young dragon, cried and ran away after watching only half of it...
Red temporarily shoved the irrelevant memories popping up in her mind aside, focusing intently on the scene before her—putting the vampire instincts aside, she still knew that the situation in front of her was strange.
Yes, putting the vampire instincts aside for now...
After a moment of hesitation, she stepped forward, dipped her finger in a bit of the blood at the edge of the dressing mirror, and put it in her mouth.
...Didn't put it aside.
"Delicious..."
Red closed her eyes and raised an eyebrow. Despite her rationality briefly appearing, a force seemingly already ingrained in her veins surged out. Her hesitation lasted only a few seconds before she beckoned toward the blood continuously pouring from the mirror—
The next moment, the blood which had just been seeping through the mirror cracks under limited circumstances was suddenly pulled by an invisible force, rushing out violently in the blink of an eye!
...
After cleaning, Luna walked into the living room, glanced at the sofa, hesitated slightly, then bent down and respectfully bowed three times.
Erin sat on the coffee table, with Hu Li beside her, whispering together—
"Fallen, huh?"
"Mm, seems kind of dead."
"Could it be already dead?"
"Not sure, let me check our Savior's breathing..."
"Oh wow! With that one poke of yours, even if they weren't dead, they'd be dead now!"